Kautz Family Foundation gives $1.5 million to Carl. H. Lindner College of Business

A $1.5 million gift from the Kautz Family Foundation will establish the Attic Building Enhancement Fund for the University of Cincinnati’s Carl H. Lindner College of Business. This donation will help build The Kautz Attic on the fourth floor of the new Carl H. Lindner College of Business facility, scheduled to open in fall 2019.

As a student-centric space, The Kautz Attic will be a place for creative thinking and innovative collaboration related to entrepreneurship and business education. Once completed, The Kautz Attic will feature rooms and furniture that can easily be reconfigured to fit students’ changing needs for projects, business pitches, classes and campus events.

The Kautz Family Foundation’s trustees, Daniel Kautz and his sister Leslie Kautz, made the gift to honor the memory of their late parents, Caroline M. and James C. Kautz, BA ’53, HON ’95. James is an emeritus trustee and former chair of the UC Foundation. He served as former general and limited partner for Goldman Sachs & Company before retiring in 1999. His family’s foundation made its first gift to UC in 1969 and, in total, has contributed more than $7 million to the university.

“Our university is privileged to have a deep history with the Kautz family and has long been a recipient of their generosity,” said UC President Neville Pinto. “I’m grateful that Jim’s children have chosen to honor his memory with this forward-thinking and transformative gift. The Kautz Attic space represents all that is exciting at UC; it connects directly to our Innovation Agenda and represents what’s next.”

“This project is an exciting opportunity to promote the values of entrepreneurialism and innovation that were so dear to our father,” said Dan Kautz. “Both our parents loved UC, and our whole family is thrilled to be part of this highly innovative workspace. We feel certain The Kautz Attic will be uniquely qualified to help prepare students and faculty for the dynamic future ahead.”

As the Carl H. Lindner College of Business shapes the future of business education in Cincinnati, the Attic is a forward-thinking space for collaboration.

The new LEED Gold building, approved in June 2016 by the UC Board of Trustees, is a four-story structure with glass facades and will host cutting-edge, interactive classrooms, a grand atrium and lobby, open workspaces, two open-air courtyards, a large café, lecture spaces, a teaching lab and more. Total cost for the new facility will be approximately $120 million; more than $24 million in private donations have supported this project to date.

“The Kautz Attic will be an exciting, dynamic space where we will provide transformative training in entrepreneurship and innovation,” said Nicolas Williams, interim dean of the Carl H. Lindner College of Business. “This will greatly facilitate our students’ connections to the vibrant innovation activities at the 1819 Innovation Hub and beyond. We are very thankful to the Kautz family for their vision and support in helping to shape the future of business education at Lindner.”

“Creativity, collaboration, and discipline went into the building blocks for this new building, said Mary Beth McGrew, UC architect. “In many ways, its design and construction mirrors what this new opportunity in The Kautz Attic affords students - a space to create, test, collaborate, succeed, fail and learn the discipline and accountability inherent in any innovation.”

Over the past four years, the Carl H. Lindner College of Business has earned national acclaim from multiple media sources, including earning the second-largest ranking increase of any Top 100 undergraduate business program as well as being ranked No. 35 among public fully online MBA programs in the nation in U.S. News & World Report. Most recently, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked the Lindner MBA program No. 1 in Ohio and No. 4 in the Midwest for learning as well as No. 37 overall among national public universities.

Featured image at top: The new Carl H. Lindner College of Business. Photo/Leighanne Toole/Associate Director of Integrated Marketing Communications/Lindner College of Business